You're It [Kansuke's Awakening]

"...yes. Yes I am." Revenant rolled his eyes beneath his helmet. Angsty cousin indeed. "All I saw was a figure chased by shambling corpses pretending at being officers of this city's law. Considering most people fare ill when faced with demons, I sought to prevent anything from happening. Your subsequent awakening was...unexpected, but it meant less threat to your life."

The dark knight took to the alley wall opposite Kansuke, leaning against it. "And now, here we are." He fell silent, simply letting his gaze rest on Kansuke. Whoever this was, he seemed more than happy enough to lash out, and he didn't quite know how to handle him.
At least the rest made sense, even if one of them was...concerning. He just seemed pointlessly hostile.

"Here we are." Kansuke chuckled, laughing for the incredulity of it all. Monsters, Personas, the veil of reality shorn and twisted over a warped reality. How strange. How utterly mad!

He surveyed Revenant, trying to gauge him, appraise him to the best of his limited abilities. Armour, greatsword, haughty tone and manner both. Hard to tell behind the full helmet if he lied or offered some measure of sincerity. "You got a name?"

Looks like keeping his mouth shut worked out for the better, for the time being. He was certainly less...aggressive, this way. "I'm known as Revenant. Or 'Rusty' to a certain witch..." He sighed. "You might encounter them later. They leave a distinct impression."

"And...what of you?" He gestures out with one hand. "Have you a name of your own in this guise, yet?"

"Revenant..." Kansuke rolled the word about his tongue. "Revenant, Revenant... Rusty Revenant. Your Playhouse playmates call you that, I guess?"

Kansuke looked to his hands - even lifting them like this caused the robe to billow and cloak him, wreathing him like smoke. He could see the teeth of his garb flexing idly with every breath. He cleared his throat. Did it muffle his voice? Shift it?

"You lot have names? Code names?" Kansuke exhaled. "I figured this was more serious than a game... What would you call me?"

This was...getting easier. "One is a name I chose for myself, and who most address me by. The other, a name decided for me by one who I had yet to introduce myself. Either way, they serve their function...though I can confess I have my preference."

Revenant raised a eyebrow beneath the helmet, a curious lilt coming to the voice that rang with metal as it echoed from his helmet. "Why would we not? To hand one's true name out in this work of ours is to bring Cadets to your door in daylight." His head tilts. "A game this is not. So why so flagrantly put oneself at risk?"
He runs his eyes over the form before him, absorbing its details. "If you would have me name you and your gnashing form, than I would say...Maw."

"Oh, huh. So you guys are like... terrorists, then? You're the bad guys?"

He knew not of the Cadets, but certainly recognized the need to hide oneself, and protect one's peers. A secret kept from the black, rotting heart of the city - it was enough to rekindle the exhilaration that sparked his awakening. The teeth of his robe flexed out lazily. "Maw? Rusty and Maw. Sounds like a horror duet."

Still, it sat ill with his inspiration. A ferocious name, to be sure, but not enough to spark the change he now ached to see. "Let's go with Creature." He chuckled. "Creature... you got your Demons, you Terrorists, these 'Cadets', and me. The Creature. Not bad, eh?"

Revenant chuckled at that one, finding a certain humour to it. "Consider this. By their judgement, you are a criminal for not dying when faced with demons. They employ these creatures themselves, and even fuse them into the officials that run the districts. Said officials also take no qualm in ending and toying with the lives of others...and that is without any external influence. All while those who work under them toil blindly without a clue to these things."
"The label of 'Terrorist' is sometimes just a matter of perspective."

He listens to the musings on monikers of the individual before him, and nods. "No, it is not...though how you can seemingly know not of the group that will hound you from this day, I do not know."

"Wait - you mean those Cadets?" Recognition struck him like a bolt. "They're the ones hunting you lot down? That's mad."

Kansuke folded his arms beneath his cloak, lapsing into silence. "So... what. You lot drag the establishment down one clumsy hijacked broadcast at a time, livin' in fear of psycho Demons and their schoolkids...? And you think I want to get in on that?"

There was definitely something almost amusing about this...oh, yes indeed. "Want? Perhaps not." He pushes off the wall. "But the moment you acquired your persona, you became an enemy of the city. Whether you are with us or not, what you do with these powers...they do not care. Unless you were to consign yourself to service with them at this very moment, you would be a criminal, and when they find you they shall take you in and twist your mind until you serve their cause. You serve or be subjugated - as far as they are concerned, these are your choices now."

Revenant reaches out and calls his weapon back to hand, resting it against the ground. "I, personally, take offence to all of this. So I work with the Playhouse, and I work to end it. If you would not commit to that, I would not begrudge you. You would be free to enlist with the Cadets to avoid their wrath, even - I would not stop you. You do, after all, have to look after your own concerns. But if you neither with to join this government or work against them...well, I suppose the Creature will have to hide away from them, shying from their gaze. I know that would not personally appeal."

Kansuke shook his head. "Just like this thing up here," he grumbled, tapping his skull with his free hand. The movement caused the chain of his blade to rattle and scrape against the floor. "You talk way too much. You lot want to make an impact, show these idiots what their fine city's really like? I say you're not working hard enough. If you want to make an impact..."
He trailed off, pushing from the wall. For the first time, his arm shot from the deoths of his robe as he shouldered the axe. "You need someone who knows how to make a proper impression."

Revenant...chuckled. "Perhaps we do."

Letting his weapon return again to the ether, the knight turned to leave. "If you want to make good on that...we have a meeting coming this very night. Feel free to come by and let us know what we're doing wrong." He takes a couple of steps, before looking back. "...you'll know the way if you decide to visit. If you were to think on it now, you should find yourself already with a good idea where to go."

"I hope to see you there, Creature."

The knight steps out into the streets.

Kansuke scoffed. Though he felt his mind pulling him in a direction he could not hope to fathom, nor had he ever committed to memory before, the grandstanding Revenant made him laugh. An invitation to the Playhouse, on the night of this rapturous revelation, no less! How exciting - and how his mind teemed, now, to see the veil of Endymion peeled back. His hollow victories and meaningless tags now burned away, and from the ashes sprang forth a far finer rebellion. An art more vivid and vicious to expose the horrors of the world.

Only when Revenant was well and truly out of earshot did Kansuke move, picking a gait and testing the limits of his newfound abilities. When he arrived at the Playhouse, he would be Kansuke Ito no more...